Smart
by phantasiedoro
Summary: "Quick, give me a kiss", Arthur says when the projections become suspicious. And Ariadne does. It's not a long or even passionate kiss, but it sets some things into motion. Let's look into Ariadne's head and what happens that the camera doesn't show us.


_Oh, that …_ smart son of a bitch. Sleek and perfect looking bastard. A few names came to mind that she might call him, when he had averted his head and risen from the bench after he had just … _tricked me. Tricked me into a kiss._

„T'was worth a shot", he had said.

 _Something is definitely going on._

She could not help but smile slightly, she was confused. Her lips tingled a little where they had met his.

There was no time to think about this properly though, because there were definitely other things going on right now. More important things. Ariadne had to concentrate on the task that was before them, especially with all the unexpected complications.

Quickly she stood up and hurried after Arthur's slim figure in just as long strides as her tight skirt would permit. How she hated costumes. Her aunt Ella used to wear them on almost every occasion, and she was the kind of person that probably sometime forgot the meaning of the word "comfortable".

„Might have to wait a bit for them, Fischer looked like a scared rabbit. Hope he won't do anything stupid", Arthur said when they entered the lift.

„Well, the dream doesn't look like it's collapsing, does it? Cobb knows what he's doing, right?" Ariadne sounded nervous even to her own ears, when she pressed the button for the fifth floor and the doors closed.

„He doesn't, but we can only hope it's gonna work anyway this time."

She did not know what to respond, so she said nothing and folded her hands in front of her, trying to appear calmer than she was. Especially when she became fully aware that they were alone in a lift and he was standing behind her.

He had just kissed her, for god's sake! What had that been for, what was he up to?

She had known him for a few months now, they had worked together, shared plans and dreams with each other. Well, that sounded more romantic than it really was, but they had gotten to know each other to some extent. Yet she never knew why he did some of the things he did. And it vexed her greatly, but she could never predict what he was going to do next.

He was much different from her fellow students - their minds revolved around a few simple things, and those things tended to be even simpler when she was around, just because she had a pretty face. _Thinking this way, he might not be so different from them after all …_

When the doors of the lift opened with a high pitched _ding_ and Arthur cleared his throat, Ariadne was ripped from her musings and called herself to order again.

They stepped out into the corridor. The sound of their feet was instantly muffled by the carpet all over the floor and the walls and ceiling too. It looked posh, like the rest of the hotel downstairs, but Ariadne could not help but think that she might not hear instantly when someone would be approaching them. This silent floor was almost more creepy than the staring projections downstairs.

In order not to let on that she was feeling uneasy she walked ahead in quick steps to the end of the corridor and was about to turn around the corner, until she heard Arthur several paces back say: „This is it".

Embarrassed she turned around, and looked at the number of the room: 528. Of course he was right. She had not been paying attention.

„Er, sorry, yes. So … we just wait?"

He had lowered his head and seemed to be smiling to himself. Now he looked up.

„Yeah, and we hope Fischer buys the Mr. Charles story enough not to question that there is a pretty young woman on his team when, usually, there's only supposed to be men." Seeing her incredulous look, he added: „Mind you, I'm not sayin' you can't be dangerous, but that's not how the extractors' training works. So just … look like you know exactly why you're here and what you have to do."

Ariadne swallowed some retort about how somebody should have told her about this. She had not even known how they were taking a risk with her here, in this position. Also, she got a little angry at herself because she had trouble to ignore he had just called her pretty. After a small pause she said: „Well, figures. After all, there're mostly men in the busin…"

She got interrupted by the sound of the lift. The man in a grey suit inside started firing at them instantly, but missed two times, until a shot out of Arthur's gun hit him right in the chest.

Ariadne felt her heart pounding very quickly. She looked at Arthur from the side, he seemed absolutely cool apart from the tight set of his jaw.

They had been chased before, in the other dream, and guns had been fired at and from them, but it felt different somehow on this quiet hotel floor. She wondered whether he felt it too. Probably not. _How many times has he had to kill projections?_ A thought struck her. _Has he ever killed someone outside of a dream? For real? Does that even feel much different?_

She wondered whether he would even tell her if he had. And somehow she simply wanted to believe that yes, it would feel much different, and no, he had not killed anyone outside of a dream.

He turned his head and caught her staring at him. The look he shot her seemed almost apologetic.

Then, the sound of a different lift and and two male voices could be heard from around the corner. Ariadne stiffened, but when they came closer, she could make out that one of them was definitely Cobb's and she relaxed a little.

Arthur positioned himself on front of room 528, so she went to stand beside him and tried to look - as much as she could - as if the belonged there. In a professional way.

Author's Note: please let me know whether this is to your liking! If no one shows any reaction I'm not sure I'll find it in me to pursue this further ... it's the first of my own writing I ever published and I'm a bit nervous ;)


End file.
